What are the best practices for designing and outputting text to a vinyl cutter?
I am new to CorelDraw. Should text be converted to curves or contours prior to cutting? If so, what is the technical reason behind that?
In my case, I have been designing in CorelDraw using basic fonts and outputting to a roland printer/plotter. the only way I achieve success is by first converting the text to curves. Why?
Thank you for the responses. So that leaves me with the question: in what property is text before welding? What technically takes place during the welding or converting to curves or objects process? Can it be assumed that text, in its native state, is not vector based and contains no usable path information?
mandm said:in what property is text before welding?
Chris Wills said:Final step is to hit Ctrl+W (Weld)
Thanks. I'm following you. You outline how different programs require different characteristics of data to cut. What about when cutting directly from Corel?
Ronny Axelsson said:Chris, I think you accidentally gave her a shortcut key you've added yourself. Ctrl+W is used to refresh screen by default.
Woops!
I have had W mapped to weld for so long I have forgotten what the original shortcut was.
Thanks for picking that one up Ronny
Ronny Axelsson said:"Artistic text", it is possible to skip the "Convert to Curves" step and instead "Weld" directly.
I always use that step because I have had unexpected results from just welding Live text!
Don't know how it works when cutting directly, and by the way; what do you mean by "cutting directly"?Is your plotter installed as a printer and you cut via the cut dialog, or do you use a macro (usually buttons in a toolbar in Draw)?
I guess it should be possible to cut text as text any way but I'm not sure. Have you tried?
Personally I prefer to convert text to curves, but not because it is necessary.The reason I do this is because I want to make sure it looks the same next time I need the same file to cut.There is a small risk that an updated font or a future update of Draw or the operating system may change how a text looks when the file is reopened.Therefore I always create an extra page inside my document, a copy used solely for cutting, where all text is converted to curves (and welded where appropriate) and all effects have been converted and so on. This to ensure nothing strange will happen in the future.I always try to keep an editable version as well though. Some people create a copy of the whole document instead, and save, while others don't do any of this. A matter of personal preferences.
Chris Wills said:I have had W mapped to weld for so long I have forgotten what the original shortcut was.
Good tips. Thanks. Yes, I'm using the print dialog right out of X6 to output to a roland printer/cutter.